David Smith - President & CEO
David Smith is the president and CEO of Down & Feather Co. David is an expert in fabric and bedding materials. For 15 years, David has been designing, sourcing and testing all of Down and Feather Co’s bedding products.
David Smith is a voting member of the Home Fashion Products Association (HFPA) and the American Down & Feather Council (ADFC). David’s products have appeared in many news media outlets and been featured online and all over the internet, including Top Consumer Reviews, Buzzfeed, Amazon, Google, and more.
Background
Hailing from Chicago, this midwesterner was not only exposed to harsh cold winters but the fine world of interior design, home furnishings, and manufacturing directly from the best source, his mom. From their furniture store, he delighted in the details of the process from design, to bringing together materials, to the finished product, as well as the testing phase to ensure the product’s design, form, and function all met the highest standards and desired performance, combining art and science to deliver the best down and feather finished goods, as well as luxury fabrics on the market.
He currently lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and triplet children.
Experience
David’s years of experience with fabrics have spanned the globe. His favorite fabrics are Egyptian long-staple yarn-dyed jacquards because of their amazing visual complexity and texture. Smith knows all too well the nuance of fabric selection. Because of the level of difficulty in choosing the correct fabric, many opt for one that’s too heavy for their intended purpose AND with the wrong finish. In the beginning, some think it’s all the same. They think, “It’s just cotton and it’s white, so how wrong can I be?”
It turns out, it can be VERY wrong.
Many factors play into the fabric’s recipe, such as country of origin, who spun it, who wove it, who treated it, and almost most importantly, who finished it and with what finish. Technically, Smith can take the same weave from the same mill and have it finished in 20 or 30 different ways, knowing it feels completely different across all the various finishes. That level of expertise in fabrics is rare in the bedding industry.
CEO & Founder At Down and Feather Company
In 2006, David founded Down & Feather Co. Smith has designed all Down & Feather Co. pillows with advanced knowledge of how down and feathers behave inside a luxurious fabric shell, how the compression of these materials affect the cradling of the head, the give of the mattress, and the comfort to the user. He has designed Down & Feather comforters to regulate temperature to provide adequate comfort for individuals who sleep hot and who sleep cool. These products not only function according to precise specifications that Smith has mapped out, but their softness and appearance are unmatched anywhere.
Smith is able to bring together art and science by combing the globe to find the suppliers of the finest Egyptian cotton, the most skilled sewers, and the most advanced sourcing of down and feather, as well as the highest level of cleaning, the planet has to offer. These materials are imported to the United States, where all Down & Feather Co. finished goods are manufactured within three production facilities.